Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/71

Rh which threw the poor student into still greater agitation. He presented a ridiculous figure, as he stood staring fixedly, with wide-open mouth, into her dazzling eyes. At that moment, a knock at the door startled her. She ordered him to conceal himself under the bed, and, as soon as the disturbance was past, called her maid, a Tatár captive, and gave her orders to conduct him to the garden with caution, and thence send him away over the hedge. But this time our student did not pass the hedge so successfully. The watchman woke up, and caught him firmly by the leg; and the servants, assembling, beat him for a long time, even in the street, until his swift legs rescued him. After that it was very dangerous to pass the house, because the Voevod's servitors were numerous. He encountered her once more, in a Roman Catholic church. She saw him, and smiled very pleasantly, as at an old acquaintance. He saw her yet again, by chance; and shortly afterwards the Voevod of Kovno took his departure, and instead of the beautiful, black-eyed Pole, some fat face or other gazed from the window. That was what Andríi was thinking about when he hung his head, and dropped his eyes on his horse's mane.

In the meantime, the steppe had long since received them into its green embrace; and the tall grass, closing in around them, concealed them,